Matt Gaetz’s antifa-detecting facial recognition story is complete nonsense
The company says the photo showed neo-Nazis and a QAnon figure
Yesterday, a mob of Trump supporters overran the US Capitol, causing widespread chaos in an attempt to nullify the results of the 2020 presidential election. In the wake of the attacks, several Republican politicians have claimed the attackers were anti-fascist activists, in spite of the widespread Trump paraphernalia and triumphant social media posts by Trump supporters. But there’s no evidence antifa played a notable role in the riot, and one of the most widely cited examples has already fallen apart.
In a widely heard House speech on Wednesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (one of 147 Republican Congress members who
voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results) claimed that the mob had been infiltrated by antifa. But Gaetz cited confusing, unverifiable facial recognition evidence from a company that now calls the original article defamatory — and says it identified neo-Nazis, not antifa supporters.
In a speech during the process of certifying President-elect Joe Biden, Gaetz claimed there was “some pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company” that some Capitol rioters were actually “members of the violent terrorist group antifa.” (Antifa is not a single defined group, does not have an official membership, and has not been designated a terrorist organization, although President Donald Trump has described it as one.)
a blog post by CTO Yaacov Apelbaum, denying its claims and calling the story “outright false, misleading, and defamatory.” (Speech delivered during congressional debate, such as Gaetz’s, is
protected from defamation claims.) The
Times article was apparently deleted a few hours after Apelbaum’s post.
XRVision image purportedly analyzing photograph from the riots on Capitol Hill.
Image: XRVision
“XRVision didn’t generate any composites or detections for the
Washington Times or for any ‘retired military officer,’ nor did it authorize them to make any such claims or representations,” Apelbaum wrote. According to his post, XRVision did analyze video footage of the riots, and the company identified “several individuals” in a composite it shared with a “handful” of outsiders. However, they were not linked with antifa.
We concluded that two of the individuals (Jason Tankersley and Matthew Heimbach) were affiliated with the Maryland Skinheads and the National Socialist Movements. These two are known Nazi organizations; they are not Antifa. The third individual identified (Jake Angeli) is an actor with some QAnon promotion history. Again, no Antifa identification was made for him either.
Angeli, who frequently appears at protests in a horned helmet and face paint, is known as the “Q Shaman” and is affiliated with the conspiracy movement QAnon. Angeli previously participated in a documentary called “The Patriots,” in which he espoused an extreme pro-Trump ideology rather than anything aligned with antifa.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/7/2...ognition-washington-times-story-false?ududjdj
